Stars fall short in 3-2 loss to Iowa

DES MOINES, IA – Travis Morin’s second goal of the game gave the Texas Stars a chance late, but the Iowa Wild held on for a 3-2 win on Saturday night in front of 12,547 fans in attendance at Wells Fargo Arena.

The Stars (20-16-1-2) and Wild (19-19-4-1) split their weekend pair of games. Morin’s two goals gives him 149 in his AHL career. Landon Bow stopped 39 of 42 shots in net in the loss for the Stars. Steve Michalek earned the win for Iowa in a 33-save performance.

Trailing 2-1 entering the third, Iowa made it a two-goal lead with a rebound goal by Mario Lucia at 13:42. The Stars pulled Bow for the extra attacker, and a comeback push, which led to Morin’s second goal of the night with just under three minutes to play. Brandon DeFazio created a rebound chance that the Stars captain batted out of the air for his 13th of the season.

The Stars took a late penalty to prevent an empty-net goal by the Wild, which eliminated their opportunity at finding the equalizer.

Marc Hagel’s deflection goal for Iowa midway through the first opened up the scoring on the night.

Travis Morin deflected Matt Mangene’s point shot 4:48 into period two to put Texas on board, but Alex Petan tipped a shot past Bow to give Iowa the one-goal advantage again, 2-1, entering the break.

Texas finished 0-for-2 on the power play. Iowa went 0-for-1. All three power play chances in the game came in the third period.

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